A Russian spacecraft with three crew members on board, docked successfully on Friday with the International Space Station (ISS).

The docking of the Soyuz TMA-18M took place just over 50 hours after the spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome operational space launch facility in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, using a Soyuz-FG rocket, EFE news reported.

It was initially planned that the Soyuz spacecraft would dock at the ISS after six hours of launching, but the Russian space agency, Roscosmos decided to change the flight schedule for security reasons.

Mogensen and Aimbetov, the first astronauts of their countries, will remain for just eight days on the ISS before returning to the earth accompanied by Russian Commander Gennady Padalka from Roscosmos.